Shards of Me
by CatRogueUntouch
Summary: After Apocalypse, Rogue loses herself and the others have to pick up the shards.


"I don't think she can take much more of this, Chuck." Logan brushed the hair away from Rogue's forehead while carrying her back to the mansion. It had been six months now since Apocalypse and things were just getting worse.

A good samaritan had found her wandering the ruins of Bayville high, as if merely spending a day at school, it had been lucky it wasn't one of the mutant haters since Rogue wouldn't have been able to defend herself against them, it been a good month since she all but stopped responding to anything outside her own mind. The medical bracelet she wore allowed them to contact Xavier to come and get her, some people had even gotten used to seeing her about when she escaped the mansion and recognized her from when they had saved them that night at the town meeting. It saddened them to see the state she was in and they would take pity of her. The bracelet had become a necessity when she stopped being able to speak two months prior.

Approaching the medbay he entered the room she now lived in, a barren glass walled room, off of the main bay with nothing in it save a bed, she'd been housed here the last month when things had gotten to the point where she would simply wander off or attempt to hurt herself or others. After Apocalypse, and absorbing all the X-men, Brotherhood, and Acolytes, things had begun to go downhill. First it was small things, forgetting the day, or where she was to be, Kitty had helped with this keeping her secret for a month before it came into the open when she lost control in a danger room session.

Logan tucked the girl into bed and looked at her sadly, he didn't know how much longer they could keep her in the mansion if things continued this way. She was a ghost of whom she used to be, and everything she needed was done by the others in the mansion that knew her well, and also knew she would hate to have to have their help. There were moments when she broke through the din of where she was, while she was still coherent she had explained it as being at a large party and having to scream to be heard, while having everyone want to speak to you at once. These moments were celebrated by all, but no one knew if it was her coming back or being lost more.

When it had become clear that she was incapable of making decisions for herself any more Logan had gone to Mystique and attempted to track down Irene. For all her faults, Mystique really loved her daughter and wanted what was best for her. Irene had moved into the mansion about three months ago, in all her visions she had never realized this would be her daughter's fate. She agreed to give Logan an ability to make decisions in her absence, and her powers did help at times when Rogue disappeared and no one called about her location. It was getting clear to them that there was only so much longer she could be given any ease of access around the mansion, people in the mansion knew her condition and helped and watched for her, but the size of it gave too many possibilities of escape. Though it wasn't really escape, she wasn't running to get out of some situation, she was merely drives now and the places she ended up were mundane. The school was the most popular it had been where she spent most of her time out of the mansion, one of the construction workers there had even taken to bringing in a school chair and setting it up in one of the less broken classrooms, it helped to keep her calm until one of the X-men could come collect her.

Kitty and Kurt spent the most time with her, they were the two besides Logan she responded to the most. Kitty helped with all her personal matters, and helped with a fashion guidance as much as possible considering she spent most of her time in simple pants and long sleeve shirts. Before things had gone completely downhill they had spoken and Rogue had taught Kitty to do her makeup, telling her if it came to a point she couldn't that she still wanted to wear it.

About three months after Apocalypse she had forgotten she was a mutant, she couldn't understand why she had to wear gloves and became aggressive when told she had to wear them. It was not an easy decision to have Forge make forearm bracelets to lock them on. About that time Rogue had started to refuse to speak to them, and soon she had stopped being able to speak. The bracelets hadn't been needed any more, she was unable to figure out how to dress now or even remove the gloves she wore.

Kurt could still get her to smile, she seemed to recognize some type of bond with him. He'd taken to going on strolls with her around the mansion, if things got too hectic he could always port them back to the medbay. Things never did often though, she was of course the ghost of the mansion, the legend that held all their secrets and memories. Some were happy about how she was now, knowing another knew everything about you and could share it was frightening. Those that had fought with her hoped that she was as withdrawn in her mind as she was outside, so that she wouldn't know what her life had become. But they all hoped one day she'd return to them, but even Xavier had lost hope of this.


End file.
